Metals Australia Ltd (ASX:MLS) has identified outstanding lithium potential on its Canadian tenements located in the James Bay area of Quebec.
Of particular interest are two properties, East Pontois and Felice, which are surrounded by the Corvette Lithium Project owned by Patriot Battery Metals Inc. and sit on the CV Lithium Trend.
Patriot has announced results from Corvette including up to 159.7m @ 1.65% Li2O and 193ppm Ta2O51 from below outcropping pegmatite within what appears to be a world-class lithium corridor.
Metals Australia will immediately commence remote-sensing data interpretation to identify and map lithium bearing pegmatites within its highly-prospective East Pontois and Felice properties, to be followed by field investigation, mapping and sampling to verify the outstanding lithium potential identified.
Metals Australia’s exciting new exploration phase is based on recognition of the outstanding lithium potential of the Canadian and Australian properties within the company’s extensive battery metals portfolio,” Chairman, Mike Scivolo, said.
“We look forward to advancing exploration at our tenements within Patriot Battery Metals’ flagship Corvette Lithium Project, while the identification of the high-grade lithium mineral, petalite, has significantly elevated the potential of our Manindi Project in Western Australia to produce high-value lithium carbonate for lithium- ion batteries and other high-technology metals products.
“These new lithium exploration programs are being launched as we eagerly anticipate the initial results of our spherical graphite and battery testwork on the Lac Rainy Graphite Project. The anticipated positive outcomes of this work will help drive the Company towards becoming a leading battery materials producer.”
At the company’s Manindi Lithium Project in Western Australia, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analyses of drilling samples from the Foundation and Mulgara pegmatites, to determine the lithium mineralogy, has identified that the majority of the lithium in high-grade samples is the higher-grade lithium mineral, petalite. Significantly, petalite is an important ore of lithium and contains up to 5% Li2O, enhancing the quality of flotation concentrate grades that can be achieved.
Petalite can also be converted to spodumene and quartz under relatively low temperature and pressure conditions. Petalite (and the secondary spodumene that can be formed from it) is lower in iron than primary spodumene, making it a more useful source of lithium than naturally occurring spodumene.
Drilling of the Foundation Pegmatite has produced significant lithium-rubidium intersections, consistently above 1% Li2O, 0.3% Rb, along the entire 500m strike length of the LCT pegmatite identified.
A further diamond drillhole is testing below the highest-grade section of the Foundation pegmatite where previous hole, MNRC076 (Figure 2) intersected 13m @ 1.03% Li2O, 0.27% Rb from 62m in MNRC076 incl. 8m @ 1.40% Li2O, 0.31% Rb in MNRC0762.
Diamond drill-core samples will be aggregated to generate a bulk metallurgical sample for flotation concentrate testwork prior to downstream hydrometallurgical leaching to generate high-value lithium carbonate as well as other products (e.g. rubidium) from the leaching of petalite and lepidolite.
